The Lee Corso Era Ends September 1, 2025

The 2025-’26 college football season has launched with one of the greatest opening games in living memory.  No. 1 Texas came to Columbus, Ohio, to play No. 3 (and defending national champ) Ohio State.  Adding even more drama and poignancy to this already-historic matchup was the fact that this was legendary ESPN football commentator Lee Corso’s last appearance on the network’s College Gameday show.  In a very classy farewell gesture, Corso, 90, wore a tuxedo for his final appearance.  The Ohio State band formed the letters “CORSO” on the field right before kickoff, and he was joined by the Gameday crew at the 50 yard line of Ohio Stadium to deliver his final “headgear” stunt.  Appropriately, he donned the Brutus Buckeye head.  How could he not?  Twenty-nine years ago, his first ever big-game outcome prognostication vis-à-vis donning the chosen team’s mascot head was born at Ohio State, where he likewise donned Brutus’ head.  It was more than fitting that he bookended his legendary body of work at ESPN by doing the same thing, in fitting tribute to the place where the cherished tradition began.

The fact that he predicted correctly was but an ancillary benefit to the proper tribute to the spirit of the moment and to the theatre of the ritual as a whole.  But beneath the theatrics of it all, Corso was 286-for-430 over his 29 years of headgear picks, making for a 66.5 percent “winning” percentage of such colorful prognostications.  Most college coaches would kill for such a winning percentage.  Ironically, Corso himself certainly “won” more such predictions than he did winning games at the University of Louisville or Indiana University, wherein he went 73-for-164, or 44.5 percent from 1969 to 1984 (including a one-year stint at the end at Northern Illinois). 

But that coaching winning percentage aside, he became a legend at ESPN in particular and in college football commentary in general, a larger-than-life face of the game.  A painting of Corso has just been unveiled at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, to remain on permanent display.  Even though the Ohio State-Texas game itself was broadcast on FOX and not ESPN, even FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff show (their own equivalent to ESPN’s College Gameday) made their own tribute to this legend in the sunset of his 70-year career in college football.  And yes, both Gameday and Big Noon were at Ohio Stadium that day — what an experience that alone had to be for the fans in attendance!

Two generations of football fans have enjoyed his presence around ESPN college football broadcasts, joining the likes of Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, later Rece Davis, and much later, Pat McAfee to create an enticing, tailgating atmosphere that became must-see TV for college football fans before the opening kickoff of games at noon, Eastern Time.  Corso, with his strong resemblance to filmmaker and comic genius Mel Brooks, surely lived up to the coincidental semblance by providing for the panel a juxtaposed combination of the wise old sage with animated antics.  His famous catchphrase of “[N]ot so fast, my friend!”, signaling to the audience that he was about to offer a prediction of outcome for an upcoming game that day that would be contrary to that of another member’s of the panel, was further accented with his handling of a pencil or some other writing implemenet.  In fact, that gesture was further enhanced when he began to use Ticonderoga pencils, which no doubt must have swelled that company’s bottom line and stock value upon the release of that information.

An era that has lasted more than three decades at ESPN and has influenced the college football landscape in a broad sense has now come to a close.  As lamentable as that may be, discerning fans can acknowledge that the time had come for a while.  He suffered a small stroke in 2009, but still managed to return to the Gameday panel later that year. The last two seasons or more gave fans cause for notice in terms of Corso’s decline in mental acuity and animation that made the legend he became in the first place.  Even during his last appearance on the program yesterday, his presence was inconsistent.  When he was present that day, however, it was a pleasure to see him in the tux, even with his verbal articulation in further decline. 

Now as a nonagenarian, may he enjoy his remaining years in prosperity, peace, and everything else that would equate to success in his mind.  We shall miss his presence on Gameday, but shall cherish the memories of his insights and antics – and mascot headgear-donning – as we gear up for kickoff every Fall Saturday.